Still Tiger in tank

In his last regular season home game, Thomason shows Long Beach State and the rest of the Big West he has no intention of leaving quietly

Bob Thomason was thankful, grateful and even humbled by the outpouring of support from the crowd that came to watch his final regular-season game as head men's basketball coach at University of the Pacific on Saturday at Spanos Center.

Bob Thomason was thankful, grateful and even humbled by the outpouring of support from the crowd that came to watch his final regular-season game as head men's basketball coach at University of the Pacific on Saturday at Spanos Center.

Smiles? Yes.

Hugs and slaps on the back? Yes and yes.

Tears? Are you kidding?

Reflection and sentiment can wait.

There was, and still is, basketball to be played.

In a pregame ceremony, athletic media relations director Mike Millerick announced Thomason's many accomplishments before a gathering of 3,402 - about 2,700 shy of a sell-out. Surrounded by his family, the 63-year-old Pacific alum in his 25th season quickly acknowledged the crowd that had risen to its feet, then huddled his players to relay final instructions before they took the floor to combat Long Beach State.

When the buzzer sounded and the scoreboard read - Pacific 71, Long Beach State 51 - Thomason, in customary form, pointed to his wife, Jerri, seated next to his parents, Donna and Bob Thomason Sr., in the southwest corner of Spanos Center. He accepted congratulations from many well-wishers as the Pacific Pep Band chanted "Thank you, Bob, Thank you, Bob."

When asked about the emotions of the day, which included a pregame ceremony to honor the team's six seniors, Thomason spoke analytically about career victory No. 433, the most in Pacific history - a total he hopes to add to next week at the Big West Conference Tournament in Anaheim.

"I don't think it was too much different," Thomason said about coaching amid the distractions Saturday. "There wasn't a lot of stuff going through my head about other things."

Not to suggest Thomason is an emotionless, cold-hearted guy. Far from it. He was excited to see his pals from Clayton Valley High, his Pacific teammates from the late 1960s, the players from the first team he coached at Escalon High in 1973, and the dozens and dozens of former Pacific players who came to pay their respects.

But reflection can wait.

Perhaps this summer, when playing with his dogs or rocking one of his grandchildren to sleep, Thomason's mind might drift for a moment, allowing him to quietly contemplate the games he's won and the lives he's touched.

Maybe he'll gaze out at the open sea when he and Jerri take their first cruise together, a gift bestowed upon Thomason at a postgame reception inside the Janssen-Lagorio Gymnasium. He might ponder the past sometime while seated in the folding padded chair with COACH T printed on the facing of the seat, another gift from the university.

But Saturday wasn't the time to reflect. There is work to be done. Starting Monday, Thomason and his assistants - Ron Verlin, Adam Jacobsen and Calvin Byrd - will prepare the Tigers for their first-round game in the Big West Conference Tournament on Thursday against UC Santa Barbara.

To Thomason, it's always been about the players. It's always been about the game.

"You're not going to get any emotion from him," said Thomason's youngest of two sons, Scott, who's following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather (Bob Thomason Sr.) as the boys varsity basketball coach at Sierra High. "He'll have a lot of time to reflect. He's always been about the kids and the program, and he's at the end of the season. So, I'm happy for him. I want him to go out with a bang."

Saturday was a time for others to reflect on a quarter-century of Pacific's men's basketball under Thomason's leadership,

"We've had such great consistency under Bob and a certain style of basketball," Pacific Athletic Director Ted Leland said. "Our obligation now is to hire a great coach and try to build on Bob's legacy. There's a legacy of excellence, there's a legacy of graduating players. Our faculty here at the university, we want to win but we're not interested in doing it in a way that these kids aren't really students. Bob's been able to blend those two."

Mike Hahn, a forward with the Tigers from 1998-2002, traveled to Stockton from Colorado on Friday to see Thomason. Hahn returned home today to continue his work with "His Little Feet," an international youth ministry. Hahn said his former coach is a "legend."

"Anybody that's been coaching 25 years, he's seen a lot of us become men," Hahn said. "It was pretty special after the final buzzer and to see him wave to the crowd and just acknowledge everybody. It was a powerful night."

And just to prove the adage, "The acorn doesn't fall far from the tree," Bob Thomason Sr., a successful coach at Pittsburg High in the 1950s and early 1960s, was quick to turn the subject from sentiment to sensibility following the game.

"I've accepted everything that's been going on," Bob Thomason Sr. said. "But I was really happy to see we played good ball both halves."